


Such Sweet Nothing

by tiggeryumyum



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-24
Updated: 2019-03-24
Packaged: 2019-11-29 08:18:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18220580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiggeryumyum/pseuds/tiggeryumyum
Summary: Bokuto didn't really mean to do a wandless spell, and he definitely didn't mean to zap away Akaashi's intelligence, and he's doing his best to fix it, okay??





	Such Sweet Nothing

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Español available: [Menudas frases románticas](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18411500) by [YuiMakino](https://archiveofourown.org/users/YuiMakino/pseuds/YuiMakino)



Bokuto's never met a Ravenclaw he likes, and that's that. 

He's a Gryffindor so he's supposed to dislike Slytherins, but so far they've been alright. Some are annoying, real nasty types, but at least they're annoying in a way that means Bokuto can duel them, and fight them, and beat them. Bokuto knows the rules of their game, and how to win it.

Ravenclaws, though, aren't annoying like that.

Bokuto once heard some students talking about how the House Cup and House Points and even the Quidditch Cup were overrated and it was a waste of time to get worked up about any of it, and guess who they were? Ravenclaws. Of course. 

Kuroo is pretty bad, and Akaashi is the _worst_. Bokuto would know, because they're chasers on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. He plays against them every year, and the two of them move in formations so tight they have to be using legilimency. They spin up, down, around in dizzying, complicated patterns, flying through the Gryffindor chasers, through the Gryffindor keeper, and through the Gryffindor goal post, scoring point after point. It's a real Ravenclaw way of playing.

It's Bokuto who's supposed to slow them down, but they're so fast, and so nimble, half the time when he slams the bludger their way, he ends up nailing a Gryffindor instead! Whenever it flies true and actually hits Akaashi's shoulder, or Kuroo's back, knocking the quaffle from their hands, Bokuto crows in victory - he'll be in a good mood the rest of the week, even if they end up losing the game itself.

But, really, Quidditch is just a game. The best game in the world, but there are some people who don't even play it. Bokuto knows he shouldn't hold any of this against them when they're not playing – and actually, Kuroo is okay. His pranks are hilarious, and he's passionate about Quidditch like Bokuto is, and sometimes he sneaks out to the Quidditch pitch after hours like Bokuto does for extra practice, and Bokuto can respect that.

Akaashi is just the worst though, no exceptions. 

Akaashi is the Ravenclaw Prefect, and he is going to ruin Bokuto's life. It's because of Akaashi that Bokuto's gotten so many detentions this year, and why Professor Ukai says he'll end up on Quidditch probation if he steps out of line again. 

"What's wrong with you?" Iwaizumi asks, when Bokuto slumps into the desk next to him in Charms.

Bokuto grunts, angry, and pulls the hood of his robe over his head.

So Iwaizumi ignores him the rest of class. He's a dependable guy like that. 

"Whoa, who pissed in your cornflakes?" Kamasaki asks, when Bokuto slumps into the seat beside him in the Great Hall at dinner.

" _Cornflakes?_ " Bokuto demands, more angry than he should've and it makes his question sound stupid, which makes him even _more_ annoyed. 

"Muggle breakfast food," Kamasaki says. "Seriously though. What's your problem?"

" _Akaashi’s_ gonna be here over winter break," Bokuto snarls. He saw the list of students staying at the castle over the two week holiday on Professor Ukai's desk, and saw only one Ravenclaw from the year below his, and of course it had to be _Akaashi Keiji_.

"So?"

"So! I was gonna use the Quidditch pitch all break!!" 

" _All_ break? You weren't going to try camping on the field, right?"

"No!" Bokuto shouts, quickly. He might have _thought_ about it, but he definitely wasn't going to _try_. It'd be too cold. He'd have to do it in the lockers. 

"So you _were_ planning on sleeping in your dorm each night?"

"Probably!!" Bokuto's getting louder in his anger, and not caring. "But _Akaashi’s_ gonna give me detention the first chance he gets!"

"You're aware that students are allowed to use the Quidditch pitch during daylight hours, Bokuto-san."

Bokuto's heart stops. Now, he cares about being loud. He turns around.

Prefect Akaashi. Arms crossed, eyebrow crooked upward. Unimpressed.

"The only reason I would have to give detention is if you had been planning to use the pitch after sunset," Akaashi says. "Am I correct?"

"No!! That's - not what I was planning to do!" 

"Oh?" Akaashi asks. He's smiling a little, Bokuto can see it in his face even if he's trying to hide it. He likes when Bokuto gets in trouble, Bokuto just _knows_ it. Bokuto scowls. "Well. I'm glad to hear this was just a misunderstanding, and you're planning to abide by the established rules for using the Quidditch pitch."

"Me too," Bokuto grumbles.

"... Shit," Kamasaki says, staring after Akaashi when he goes. "He really has it out for you."

"He's an asshole."

"I donno," Kamasaki says. "He’s always been an alright guy to me." 

"Last year he caught me out after hours on the way back to Hogsmeade," Tanaka says. "Just told me to get back to the commonroom. Didn't even take a house point."

"Akaashi-san helped me during Quidditch practice, too!" Hinata says.

"Then you guys spend winter with him!" Bokuto shouts out, annoyed by all this Awesome Akaashi talk, and storms out of the Great Hall. 

This is really the worst. Bokuto even learned a warming spell, just so he'd be able to use the pitch in the dark hours of winter, and Kuroo told him about a cat's eye spell that would let him see in the dark, too. It was going to be great. Now he'll only get to play Quidditch twelve hours a day instead of sixteen, or nineteen, or twenty. 

He stomps off to bed.

~ 

Winter holiday comes and Bokuto says goodbye to his housemates for two whole weeks. Nakashima is one of them, and Bokuto’s dormmate. Packed and ready to go early, he spent the morning fiddling around with a brightly colored Muggle toy, before getting bored with it and setting it on his nightstand. 

"Sure," he says, when Bokuto asks if he can try it. "I don't know if it'll be any fun, though."

It's called a Rubik's cube. From the colors and the goal of the game, and had Bokuto assumed it was for young Muggle children. This makes Bokuto overconfident, but he's still struggling with the thing all through their final meal together, then breakfast the next day, and lunch. On the third day, he decides that the only way to solve it must be transfiguration.

"This is a toy for Muggle kids," Komi points out. Komi is a Slytherin, but there's so few students left in the castle they're sitting at the same table anyway. "That can't be right."

"Then you do it," Bokuto says, shoving it over.

Confident that he can succeed where Bokuto couldn't, Komi sticks out his tongue as he concentrates, spinning the squares around, and around, and around. Around, and around, and around. He frowns, turning it over in his hands. Around, and around.

"Okay, well," Komi says, setting it down. "I can't figure it out, but that doesn't make it magic."

"May I?" Akaashi. Passing by behind him, again. 

Komi tosses it over, and Bokuto watches, suspicious. He doesn't want to admit it, but if there's anyone in Hogwarts who can figure it out, it's probably Akaashi, and he wants to see if it's even possible.

Akaashi catches it, and immediately starts spinning the different rows with clever, slender fingers. 

"This isn't really a children's toy," Akaashi says. "It's a puzzle. Mainly for adults. It's meant to be difficult, though once you learn the different formulas, it's fairly simple."

Akaashi sets it back on the table, all sides blanketed in solid colors, each square slotted together, neat and tidy. Bokuto picks it up, shocked, spinning it over and over in his hands. 

Akaashi smiles at his surprise, and this time doesn't bother to hide it. 

"And now that I've finished my rounds of the Quidditch pitch," he says. "I assume Bokuto-san is going straight to bed."

Bokuto had resolved, last night, to not sneak onto the Quidditch pitch. He knows there's no point in trying, he won't get anything out of it except detention. His resolve had weakened over the day, though, he's been practicing hard since lunch, and it only made the fact that he had to stop during such a good groove even worse. He'd been planning to sneak out directly after dinner, but now with this explicit warning that Akaashi will be watching…

"Yeah," Bokuto says. "Straight to bed."

Annoyed, Bokuto mixes up the cube again in sharp, forceful motions of his fingers, deliberately wrecking Akaashi's clever work, then shoving it in his robes. 

~

Bokuto does go straight to bed, and lays in bed, for about an hour. 

Sawamura's the only other Gryffindor in his year staying over winter break, and he's a prefect too. He won't give Bokuto detention or take house points, but he will forbid Bokuto from sneaking to the pitch if he finds out what he's up to. Bokuto has to wait for him to get back from visiting his Hufflepuff friends, climb into bed, and close his curtains around it. He waits another twenty minutes, then gets up, still in his robes, gathering his gear and broom, and sneaks down the halls of Hogwarts. 

He's moving as quiet and careful as he can down the halls, thinking only of not getting caught, which is usually enough to work, but not tonight.

"Bokuto-san – "

Bokuto spins around.

Bokuto's wand is sycamore, dragon heartstring, fifteen inches, springy. He likes his wand a lot, but he doesn't have it on him now, and he has a habit of that, misplacing it beside the commonroom fire or forgetting it in his room, so he's gotten better than the average student at wandless magic. 

And wandless magic is impressive, but it's also raw and weird and strange.

Bokuto waves his hand as he spins, flinging the spell at Akaashi, and his thoughts aren't clear – he's only focused on getting that memory _out_ of Akaashi's head, making him forget that Bokuto was even here, wishing he wasn't there to begin with, that he wasn't the sort of person who would think to check for Bokuto here at all – and all that desperate energy goes barreling at Akaashi's face. 

Akaashi doesn't even have time to blink – it hits, and he tips backward, limp. 

As he falls, a ball, darker than night in some parts, and twinkling bright white in others, pops out of Akaashi's head. 

It soars through the air in what seems like slow motion, and Bokuto catches it on instinct. It hits his palm, and Bokuto hisses in pain – the little thing stings!! Bouncing it from hand to hand, Bokuto bundles up his fingers in his robes in order to hold the tiny, strange ball that had burned like frostbite against his skin. 

Akaashi has fallen to the floor, and that should be the more important thing, but once Bokuto gets a good look at the ball, it's hard to be interested in anything else – it's like a mini cosmos in there. Deep, deep dark, with flashes of light, dotting tiny and pretty before dimming – then another flash, like a lightning bolt, streaking across the surface. 

He can't even be entirely surprised. If he had to imagine what something that came from brilliant Akaashi's head might look like, this is exactly it. 

Oh. Yeah. Akaashi.

More afraid of punishment than having done any harm – it wasn't a hard fall or anything, and it's not like Bokuto does dark magic – Bokuto looks down at Akaashi's body.

Already he's stirring, groaning a little, holding his head, proving Bokuto right. He's probably fine aside from some bruising, but this will not be the case for Bokuto. It's one thing to be a bruised prefect, and it's another to be the person who dared to bruise a prefect. 

"What – happened?" Akaashi asks, confused. 

"Nothing!" Bokuto says, his only redemption is in that confusion, and he's going to see how far it can carry him. "Akaashi, you have to think better of me, because I wasn't doing anything wrong!!" 

"Oh," Akaashi says. He looks a little intimidated by Bokuto's loud voice, so Bokuto sweats a little. Maybe he shouldn't have said anything. Maybe Akaashi had forgotten entirely, and Bokuto just made himself a suspect. Maybe he should've just run away. Akaashi's forehead wrinkles in deep thought, slowly getting to his feet, and dusting off his robes. "Are you lying, Bokuto-san?"

"Wh-why would you ask that?"

"I know you cause lots of trouble," Akaashi says, voice prim, but in a weird way it's almost like an act. He's even pointing his finger as he says it, too, like a strict schoolmarm from a comic. "So saying that you're not up to something makes me suspicious."

"Well, you can't prove it!" Bokuto says. Then looks a little closer. "What's – the last thing you remember?" 

Akaashi tilts his head to the side, thinking deeply again. "Dinner!" he suddenly says, and a smile lights up his face at the memory, fist hitting his open palm. "I had glazed ham, and hot water with lemon!"

Something is. Very. Different. Bokuto isn't sure what, he's not even sure it's bad. Because Akaashi is smiling and looks really happy, happier than Bokuto's ever seen him. But Bokuto is sure that he wouldn't be looking that happy after being attacked if he still had this swirling, vicious, pretty little ball inside his head. 

"Hey," Bokuto says, and holds the twinkling little ball out for Akaashi to see. "What do you make of this?"

"Oh." Akaashi looks. He considers, turning his head. He seems mesmerized. "It's very pretty, Bokuto-san..."

"You don't know what it is?"

Akaashi looks up at him with wide, clueless eyes, shaking his head. 

"Oh well, well," Bokuto huffs, and tucks it into his robes. Akaashi blinks for a moment, like he’s sad Bokuto took the ball away - but only for a second. Then he smiles again. 

"Alright then," he says. "Good night, Bokuto-san! Sleep well!" 

"You're – " Bokuto stops, he'd almost asked _you're not going to give me detention??_ , because that's basically asking for it, but from how strangely Akaashi is acting, maybe that wouldn't be a problem. Akaashi turns around, waiting patiently for Bokuto to finish. "Uh – you're, ah. You're a good prefect."

"Oh!" Akaashi says, and smiles in surprise. "Thank you very much, Bokuto-san!" 

He walks with a light, happy steps down the hall, to the Ravenclaw dormitory.

Maybe, Bokuto thinks, a good night's rest will fix it.

~

“Oh, Bokuto-san," Akaashi says, the next morning. His voice is almost unrecognizable. It's drifty, and light, and it lacks the usual crisp, precise frost. "You dropped this."

He's holding the Rubik's Cube. He frowns down at it, spinning the rows despondently. "It got mixed up again last night, unfortunately. I haven't been able to solve it this time."

Akaashi gives it a few more tries as he stands there, then gives up with a shrug, and holds it out for Bokuto to take.

Bokuto reaches out for it slowly, looking Akaashi up and down as he finally grabs it. Akaashi smiles sweetly, then starts walking toward the Ravenclaw table for breakfast. 

No one in Ravenclaw looks upset, or confused, or is even paying them any attention. 

Akaashi is the only Ravenclaw of his year staying here over winter, Bokuto realizes. But Shibayama is there, at the Ravenclaw table, and Hanamaki, and worst of all – _Kuroo_. Akaashi made it through last night undetected because his dorm was empty, probably, but if any of them even say one word to Akaashi – if they even get a glimpse of that sweet smile – they'll know something's wrong instantly.

Panicked, Bokuto runs after Akaashi, grabs his wrist, and drags him out of the Great Hall.

It's only once they're going down the steps of the dungeon that he realizes Akaashi hadn't protested at all, or asked a question. The expression on his face is mildly curious, eyes traveling around the ceiling of the cramped staircase like he's never seen it before. 

Groaning from the building sense of dread, Bokuto hurries even faster down the steps. 

"You're good at potions, right??" Bokuto says.

Akaashi smiles wider, pleased, puffing out his chest. "I've scored Os each year."

That's Akaashi's best class, he knows. And he's smart. And maybe – maybe a potion can fix this?

Bokuto charms the lock open, and shoves open the door to the potions classroom. He positions Akaashi in front of one of the pots, and Akaashi waits there, obedient, as Boktuo goes to the supplies and grabs all the ingredients he can think of that have to do with memory, and intelligence, and luck, and health.

He dumps them on the table in front of Akaashi, who makes a soft sound of surprise.

"We're making potions?" he asks, sounding very happy about it. 

"Yeah, we need a potion to – to fix what happened last night."

"Oh… yes, of course," Akaashi says, suddenly very serious. Good, Bokuto thinks, relieved. He was starting to worry that whatever had happened to Akaashi was so bad that he couldn't even tell there was something wrong with himself to start with. 

"So what's a potion to fix someone's mind? Or to see what's wrong with it – " 

The door to the potions room opens. 

"Bokuto?" Komi asks, poking his head in. He looks confused. "It's time for breakfast, what –"

"Nothing!!!" Bokuto barks, spreading his arms, hiding Akaashi from view.

"Uh-huh. Who’s that behind you?"

"Me! I am!" Akaashi says, peering around Bokuto's arm and waving.

Komi's amusement drops. He's sharp. He knows Akaashi. Something is fishy here, Akaashi doesn’t introduce himself like it’s something pleasant and good to simply exist, and of course Komi can tell. "Soo… what are you doing? Extra credit?"

"Yeah! That! Prefect Akaashi offered me extra credit to get out of detention!" Bokuto says. "See?"

Akaashi has started picking through the ingredients, considering them one by one, lifting them closer to his face. "Hm," he says, deep in thought, setting the ingredient back down. 

"So what are you brewing?" Komi asks, walking further into the room, eyes narrowed. "Akaashi?"

"Stop distracting him, this is really important work!" Bokuto says.

Komi does not look like he believes him, but with Akaashi there, perfect Prefect Akaashi, who would never break a rule in his life, how could he doubt it?

"But if he gave you extra credit, why is he the one doing the work?"

"He's – demonstrating," Bokuto says. "And you're distracting me, too! So go away!"

"I've finished," Akaashi chimes in.

Bokuto knows that can't be right. He exchanges a confused look with Komi. The pot in front of Akaashi is empty, he didn't even turn on the flame or get out his potions book or spoon. 

"Finished what?" Bokuto asks.

"I've put them in order, by their letters," Akaashi says, with a very pleased, little smile.

"Letters?" Komi asks.

"Aspohdel, bezoar stone, croakoa, dittany, fluxweed, horklump, newt, and vinegar," Akaashi says, pointing to each one as he goes. When he finishes, he clasps his hands together neatly, looking to Bokuto, quietly happy with his work.

Bokuto and Komi stare a beat.

"Uh, what's wrong with him?" Komi asks. "What'd you do??" 

"Nothing!"

"Don't be mad, we can still brew a potion," Akaashi says, concerned by their fight. "I know it's very important to fix what happened last night."

"What happened last night??" Komi demands, to Bokuto.

"The Rubik's cube got mixed up again," Akaashi says, gravely. "We're going to make a potion to fix it."

Komi's gaze slides back over to Bokuto, pointed and horrified.

"I don't know!" Bokuto says, tugging at his face. "I didn't mean it! We were just in the hall and I wanted him to forget real bad, and I guess I did wandless magic even though I wasn't trying and this came out!"

Bokuto pulls out Akaashi's star ball from his robes.

Komi's eyes go wide.

"Do you know what it is??" Bokuto asks.

"No," Komi says. "But it looks pretty damn important, Bokuto!"

Komi groans, and tells them to stay put, and leaves the room. 

"Have we done something wrong, Bokuto-san?" Akaashi asks, after a beat of silence. 

He sounds worried, expression soft in a way Bokuto's never seen. It makes Bokuto feel lower than dirt, cause of course this is all his fault.

"No," he says. "Komi's just being nosy, but everything's gonna be fine."

"Oh, good," Akaashi smiles, and waits, but not too long, because Komi is quick to return, and this is why Bokuto likes Slytherins. Cause he doesn't come back with a professor, he comes back with shrewdly clever Suna.

Suna takes one look at Akaashi's star ball, and grimaces. 

"This is a trait ball," Suna says. "You stole one of his traits. Probably his intelligence."

Of all the things to take from a Ravenclaw, and from Akaashi, of all Ravenclaws… "How do I give it back??"

"You just – give it back," Suna says. "It should go where it belongs. It's still him, after all."

But Bokuto tries doing that, just like it stung Bokuto, Akaashi quickly pulls away, shaking his fingers. 

"Ouch," he says, then looks up at Bokuto, expression sad and mildly betrayed as if asking what he did to deserve that. "Bokuto-san?"

"Huh," Suna says, levitating the ball up, spinning it slowly, looking it over. "Maybe it's just less stressful being an idiot."

Bokuto does not like the sound of that. "What does mean?? Why is it hurting him?"

Suna shrugs. "Ask a professor. As long as you don't lose the ball, it's hypothetically fixable."

"A professor??"

"Yes, a professor," Suna says. "Someone who actually knows what they're doing? It's not a big deal, it's not as though you've done an Unforgivable."

Bokuto nods. That's true.

But it's also true that Professor Ukai will definitely put him on probation if he finds out about this. The solution sounds easy enough, from what Suna said, and Bokuto thinks his Quidditch playing is at least worth the effort of trying to do it himself, first. 

Once his cat was sick, and Bokuto had to sneak medicine into her food. Maybe this will be the same.

"Akaashi!" Bokuto calls. "Catch!"

Akaashi reacts with the same instinct Bokuto has, holding out his hands – but instead of cradling it as carefully as he can, when it starts to sting Akaashi recoils, dropping it to the floor. 

"Bokuto-san!" he scolds, now starting to look annoyed. "That was very foolish. Please stop."

But even now, while annoyed, there's a frostiness that's missing from Akaashi's gaze, a keen, cold, shrewdness. 

He keeps Akaashi to himself all day, sneaking him into the Great Hall for meals when the room is practically empty, then squirreling him away to the library, where no student would be during winter holidays, not even Ravenclaws. Akaashi follows along with Bokuto without complaint, and without his usual frost is a sweet, and soft, and quiet boy. 

"What are you writing?" Bokuto asks when he sees Akaashi's got his quill out in the library. "That's not one of the Hogwarts books, right??"

"No, this is my journal," Akaashi says, still drawing in the lines. "Important things go in here, normally, but right now I can't think of any. But the sound of quill on paper is quite nice, don't you think?"

He smiles, drawing line, after line, after line, after line, enjoying the soft scratch of each. 

Bokuto feels fear, deep and very real, as he realizes what he's done is truly unforgivable. 

~

Bokuto decides, if he can’t resolve this before the end of winter holiday, he will go to a professor. He has nine days left, and though closer to eight, cause it's nearing time for bed. Bokuto looks sadly out at the Hogwarts house flags, waving in the wind above the Quidditch pitch as they pass by a window. He can't even justify being sad about his lost holiday, though. Not when he caused it. 

He can't risk Akaashi sleeping in the Ravenclaw dorm again, and Akaashi can't figure out the riddle to get inside, anyway. Bokuto sneaks him up to the Gryffindor dorm, but there's another problem, just as big. He shares a room with Sawamura, who is just as strict as Akaashi, and will go straight to the headmaster and infirmary if he finds out. 

Like everything else, Akaashi is more than happy to go along with it when Bokuto leads up him to the Gryffindor dorm.

"Wear these," Bokuto says, grabbing his newer, better pajamas, because even now, like this, Akaashi is prim and polite and fancy, and should have nicest things available touching his skin. 

"And you'll have to sleep in bed with me," Bokuto says, because Sawamura will definitely check any bed he sees with curtains drawn shut, when they should be open.

"I have to?" Akaashi gasps, hand going to his mouth.

"Yeah," Bokuto says, struggling to keep his voice firm after seeing such an adorable expression on Akaashi's face. 

" _Have_ to?" Akaashi repeats, this time looking worried.

"It won't be bad, or anything!" Bokuto says. "I snore a little bit but I can cast a silencing spell. I'm the best at silencing spells!"

"… Alright," Akaashi says, and slowly sits down on Bokuto's bed, in Bokuto's bright red, Gryffindor themed pajamas. He sits on the bright red, Gryffindor themed blankets, looking nervous and shy, and also cute.

Bokutos been thinking that a lot lately, but it's hard not to. Akaashi like this is kind of defenseless, and it's like when Bokuto sees a baby animal that can't help itself. Akaashi needs help, and it makes him sweet. 

Also, Bokuto thinks, Akaashi might use some of the cold frostiness of his intelligence to make his face look a little meaner than it naturally is. His features are all very fine and polished, which can be intimidating if he's scowling, but is also just pretty when he's not. 

Bokuto is thinking about all this, when he finishes pulling on his pajamas, crawling into bed, and Akaashi leans in and tries to kiss him.

"Akaashi!" Bokuto gasps.

Akaashi leans back, startled again. "You – you said, we have to – together – " he says. "That's what you said – "

"Not like that! Not anything like that!!" Bokuto shouts, horrified – most at how easily Akaashi went along with it! "We're both just sleeping, alright? But it's a secret that you're here, so it has to be in the same bed."

"Oh," Akaashi says, and smiles in relief. "Alright then. I thought it might be nice to kiss Bokuto-san, but I wasn't so sure about the rest."

"Right," Bokuto says. His face is going pink, so he turns the other way, so Akaashi won't see it. 

He wants Akaashi back to normal, because he deserves to be the person he was, but. 

But that wasn't the worst thing to hear, and maybe Bokuto wouldn't mind hearing other things like it.

Akaashi doesn't snore, or anything. He's kind of cuddly, and his shampoo smells like sharp spices. It's nice to fall asleep beside, and even nicer to wake up with, because Akaashi, groggy eyed and barely awake, presses a kiss to Bokuto's nose, first thing, then laughs, and Bokuto can only stare, stunned. 

It takes self control Bokuto did not know he possessed to keep from kissing back in a way that would not be a joke, and not leave him laughing.

~

"Oi. 'kaashi-kun."

Bokuto can't stop it from happening. He's too far away, and it's Kuroo, coming up to his pal, his friend, his Quidditch partner, someone he knows better than anyone else in the world. It's been three days since Kuroo last talked to Akaashi, too, and Kuroo is obviously concerned about that. He's gonna get to the bottom of this, and there's nothing Bokuto could do to stop it. 

He watches their mouths move in a quiet conversation, and Kuroo's face crease more and more in confusion. Slowly, Bokuto approaches. 

"What," Kuroo is asking, slowly. "Is going on?"

"Well," Akaashi says. "I have to admit I'm confused myself. I think it has to do with a Muggle toy. And a potion."

"Did someone feed you a potion?" Kuroo asks.

"No, no, Bokuto-san was going to have me make one, to, ah – fix something, I think," Akaashi says, straining to piece it together. "But we didn't make it, in the end."

"I see," Kuroo says, and slowly swivels his gaze to Bokuto, standing behind Akaashi. "Maybe our pal Bokuto can clear this up for both of us."

"Yes, I think so," Akaashi agrees, sounding relieved. "He's been very helpful about it."

"Bet he has," Kuroo says, and Bokuto already has his hands up as Kuroo starts approaching. 

Kuroo listens to the story, looks down at Akaashi's star smarts ball when Bokuto pulls it out. Kuroo nods, then tells Bokuto he has one hour to fix this before Kuroo is going to Headmaster Hibarida himself. 

And that's a Ravenclaw for you!

~

"No more messing around, alright Akaashi?" Bokuto says. "You gotta take this."

Akaashi flinches, remembering the dark, unpleasant ball Bokuto pulls out, and hating it. They're in Bokuto's dorm room again, on his bed, for what Bokuto thinks will probably be the last time. 

"No, thank you," Akaashi says.

"It's important, Akaashi," Bokuto says. 

"I don't want it."

"But it's yours, so – you need to have it," Bokuto says. "Even if you don't want it, you have to."

Akaashi's eyebrows pinch upward. "It hurts, Bokuto-san."

"Yeah, but it won't forever – just, like pulling out a splinter, you know?" Bokuto says. "It'll only hurt at first."

Akaashi looks sad, heartbreakingly sad. "Can I hold your hand?"

Bokuto grabs his hand, and maybe squeezes too tight. And maybe that's not enough either, because Akaashi presses in against Bokuto's side, like he's trying to find a place to hide.

"I don't know why," Akaashi says, looking at the missing piece of himself in Bokuto's hands. "But I feel like we won't be friends after this. Will we still be friends?"

"Yes," Bokuto says, instead of, _I didn't know we had become friends_ , which was his actual thought, but a sincere one. He didn't know it had happened, but it had. Even if Akaashi goes back to his mean, strict self after this. Bokuto won't be able to look at him the same. 

"Remember the night I had the glazed ham for dinner?"

"Yeah."

"I wanted to practice Quidditch with you, then," Akaashi says. "I thought you might want to practice with me, but then you tried to sneak out."

"You – did?" Bokuto asks, trying to remember that moment, so many nights ago. What had Akaashi said at dinner? Something about checking the Quidditch pitch so he would know if Bokuto was sneaking out? It had sounded like a threat. Had it been an invitation… ? 

"Can we play Quidditch together?" Akaashi asks.

"If, if you want," Bokuto says, struggling to imagine the real Akaashi wanting something like that. But if he does – of course. It's a very happy thought.

Akaashi swallows, and squares up his shoulders. He wraps his hand around that vicious, pretty little thing, and the stars inside swirl madly, faster, and faster. Akaashi whimpers, scrunching his face. 

Bokuto holds him tighter, wishing he could take some of it, or at least make it as painless – he's the one who popped it out after all, that'd only be fair – Akaashi goes still, quite suddenly. He takes a sharp breath, like the one he might make when stepping out into a very cold winter night. 

He sits up straight, lifting just slightly from Bokuto's side.

Then he takes another breath, a sharper breath, and pulls even further away, climbing onto his hands and knees to do it. He turns around, looking at Bokuto in horror, in humiliation. 

"Akaashi – "

Akaashi shakes his head no, wildly, crawling backward off the bed, stumbling to his feet, and literally running out the door.

~

Akaashi's been avoiding him. He's been eating breakfasts so early that he's gone by the time Bokuto shows up, and once they almost ran into one another in the doors of the Great Hall, and Akaashi had looked at him with only frost – cold, unreadable eyes. And then he kept walking.

"At least he didn't give you any detention," Komi points out, as they walk off the Quidditch pitch, their last day of Winter Holiday, breaking for lunch.

Bokuto grumbles to himself. At this point he'd almost welcome detention, because at least then Akaashi would have to say something to him. He's thinking that when they walk into the locker rooms and find Akaashi sitting there, with his broom.

He stiffens, in the middle of polishing the handle.

"Oop," Komi says, and backs out the door, closing it on the two of them.

Bokuto opens his mouth, but he doesn't know where to begin. 

"Uh. Akaash - "

"I know you think I'm cruel," Akaashi says, suddenly. Defensively. 

"Wha," Bokuto says, having to actually put effort into remembering his opinion of Akaashi before all this happened. "Well – kinda."

"I was warned about you," Akaashi says. "When I became a prefect."

"What!" 

"I was told you have no tact," he says. "That you would brag about any show of leniency, or assume they were the new rules." 

"Akaashi, no! What! That's a lie!" Bokuto barks again. Who would dare say such – 

"I was told," he says, "About an incident with the current Gryffindor prefect, who lost seventy house points for not reporting the wild doxy you sneaked into your dorm room, after you boasted about it in class."

"Oh," Bokuto says. "Yeah."

"I'm not trying to say this was anyone else's decision, understand," Akaashi says. "I have been strict with you, and I don't regret it. I'm still going to be cruel, Bokuto-san. But it's not – as though – "

Bokuto watches the usually eloquent Akaashi struggle, amazed. Even separated from his intelligence, Akaashi's words had always come out smooth and fluid and lovely. Maybe it's the intelligence that's causing the problem. Maybe it's clogging everything up, when before he could just say it, easy, without worrying.

"It's not as though I think – you're worse, or a bad person," Akaashi says. "It's not as though I dislike you. Or that. We couldn't – if you wanted. I do admire your skills as a beater, and you're also. As you already know, you're – an accomplished wizard, and I think you're – admirable – "

"Hey, Akaashi," Bokuto says.

"Yes?"

"Do you want to practice Quidditch?"

Akaashi blinks, stricken. The strict line of his mouth actually wobbles a bit, and he nods once, sharply. "Yes," he says. "Please."

Bokuto grins so wide it almost hurts his face. Cause Akaashi deserves to be the person he worked to be, and Bokuto had liked seeing Akaashi in his bed, and saying sweet, warm things, but he couldn't picture a world where both could happen. 

He can see it now, though, and maybe he's getting ahead of himself, but he's looking forward to when it will happen. Eventually.


End file.
